Updated 18-Sep: Welcome to the Schriefer Blog, my name is Tavis Schriefer. Recently, my wife Jill and I raised money to supply driFIRE shirts to every soldier in Apache Company of the 1-501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. We were successful in raising over $6500 and we would like to thank everyone for all their support to make this happen. Please read our entire message here...

Sunday, January 30, 2005

1st Care Package Shipping

Now that Jon has a mailing address, I'm sending off the 1st care package tomorrow. I will also begin putting together items with the goal of sending the next package in about a week. I want to get this one off even if it won't have a lot in it, because it will have his field jacket. He sent me an email the same day he posted the blog and said that food is OK (he mentioned his Grandmother's fudge specifically). He also asked for some DVDs of movies or TV shows. I've been making some DVDs lately of shows from TV, etc. and will be including some with the package.

I got up at 6AM this fine Sunday morning planning on making updates to the IDEATIVE website, but instead have been sitting here, enjoying my coffee and reading other blogs and online news sites from around the world. It came to me that Jonathan loved Starbucks so much, I thought I would get some coffee from there and include in his package as well.

One thing I read on a London newspaper (on-line) this morning - its really sticking in my head - is that a columnist referred to the fastest growing generation of web surfers (over 65) and termed them "Silver Surfers" - I thought that was pretty funny. I thought I would throw that out, in case my parents are reading ;)

Off and on, I read several blogs from soldiers in Iraq. They provide a perspective of how things are and how different soldiers feel about what they are going through. Here are the blogs I've been looking at so far:

Below is a list of care package ideas from Steven Kiel's blog. This isn't necessarily what Jonathan would want, just some feedback from other soldiers. Some of the items I personally don't think Jonathan would want - at least not yet, but I didn't edit the list below. Jon, let us know what kind of stuff you would like and we'll take care of it.

On Steven's blog, he said, "I know many of you have asked about care packages and what kind of things we need. I’ve come up with a list, which is surely not exclusive. Out of the ordinary things are always kind of nice too, so don’t limit yourself to these things if you’re thinking of sending something. If possible, try to get things in sealable containers so the bugs won’t get into them. Just have fun looking for things and the package will be good. I intend to share this with my platoon, so don’t restrict yourself to things that you think just I would like."

Food

Granola bars

Power Bars

Protein powder

Candy - please no Skittles though, they put those in some of our MRE’s and we’re all kind of sick of them.

Gourmet coffee

Beef Jerky/Slim Jim’s

Trail Mix

Peanuts

Chips- like Pringles

Gum- sugar free preferably, so my teeth don’t rot out.

Microwaveable popcorn

Toiletries

Toilet seat covers

Mach 3 razors

Mouthwash

Baby wipes

Vitamins

Floss

Foot powder

Those poofy things for liquid soap (yeah, I don’t know what they’re called)

Deodorant

Eye drops

Cough medicine, Aleve, Nyquil

Entertainment

Magazines – National Review, Weekly Standard anyone?

Books

DVD’s

CD’s

Misc.

Little flashlights

Stationary

Pens

Air fresheners

I think Citronella candles would be good to get rid of the bugs when it gets warmer out, but I don’t know if it’s possible to mail those